Indian Bitcoin operators suspend operations ensuing RBI warning

Following RBI’s warning against the risks posed by virtual currencies, several Bitcoin exchange websites have shut down their shops. The halt in operations seems to be temporary, as the operators have put up messages saying the same.

buysellbitco.in (shown above), is one of the Bitcoin trading companies in India. Although the site is operational for visitors, buying/selling has been suspended. The notice reads that they operations will resume once the company outlines a suitable framework under which the site could work.

RBI itself hasn’t laid down any rules or guiding lines for trading and usage of virtual currencies in India yet. So while it figures out how to deal with this going trend, the warning it released aims at educating the people about the risks that these volatile currencies carry.

The above screenshot is from INRBTC. According to Business World, the trading service said that the reason behind this move is that RBI had stated that users of virtual currencies are exposed to both legal and financial risks, and the only option left now is to suspend the services until further arrangements can be made.

Another recently launched Bitcoin exchange service Unocoin, has also halted its operations and the following message is running on the site.-

“ Unocoin has decided to temporarily pause its buy and sell operations. All the pending orders today gets fulfilled and no more orders will be accepted till further notice. This is done to protect our valuable customers from getting into unintended legal risks.“

From all this action, it could be implied that many traders and users of Bitcoins are taking RBI’s warning seriously and are taking measures to reduce the potential risks involved. If one wishes to buy Bitcoins in India, sites like localbitcoins are still active.